Buddy's Pizza

In Detroit, Buddy’s is synonymous with pizza. The square, thick, light and crispy pie with caramelized edges that’s known as Detroit-style pizza originated right here back in 1946, when returning WWII soldiers told owner Gus Guerra about the pizza they’d eaten in Italy and he set out to recreate it. There were no pizza pans around back then, but there were plenty of automotive shops nearby, so someone brought over a rectangular steel tray used to hold nuts and bolts, his chef Connie Piccinato used it to make a pizza, and the rest was history.

Nowadays, Buddy’s has nearly 20 locations in the Detroit area, and within the past few years Detroit-style pizza has crept beyond the borders of Motown and taken the nation by storm. Buddy’s pizzas start with a double-proofed dough and are built backwards from there, with pepperoni, melty Wisconsin brick cheese and three stripes of sauce added (in that order). There’s nothing else quite like it, and it’s something that every pizza lover should try.